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Renovating a house I'm about to purchase

U

Uppie1414

Golden Member
Hey guys

I've worked on a couple rental houses and my father is in the real estate business, but I'm looking to see if any ATers have a good idea on the costs of some remodeling ideas.

I'm about to purchase a 3000 sq ft Duplex about a block off the nearby lake--it's in great shape, with new roofing, water heater and furnace (within 8 years or less). Siding is great, inside needs a little work, but in no way is it run down. Being an older house (inspection passed on the foundation), some parts of the floor are a little warped/etc., so I'm going to rip it up and relay wood/tile. I'm trying to see what this will run me:

--ripping up 1 to 2 floors and leveling/reinstalling flooring (about 1,100 sq feet each, including all rooms, kitchen and bathroom)

--Installing a 8 ft fence in the back yard around the yard
30x30x30 yards, roughly

--perhaps putting in some cobblestone around the deck
unsure yet

--tearing down an old 2-stall garage (needs to be removed) and removing the "trash"

--paving/leveling the place where the garage was (blacktop vs. concrete, 2 cars wide by 3 deep)

--installing a deck
20x20 about....not sure how I want it quite yet

**Also, on the 3rd floor, it's a renovated studio about 20x38. This would be my room/office and it has a HUGE bay winder overlooking the lake. Is there any way to be able to put a small deck/area on the roof outside to be able to go out there? A couple other houses have that sort of thing and, if it works, it would be nice! Altough, the view is nice already, so I might not do anything at all


I guess I'm looking for an estimate while I gather the numbers myself. This is in prime location--just needs to be fixed up.


If anyone has any other ideas, let me know!
 
Pardon me if I missed it, but are you planning on doing this, or paying someone to do it for you. Some of the things, like demo and laying pavers, cost very little in materials but cost a fair amount in labor.
 
Originally posted by: MixMasterTang
Why would you need to do all of this if it is a new house?
Click to expand...

New house to me ;-) It's currently used as a duplex but I'm going to put an offer on it...debating on whether I want to buy this or another. Built in about 1910


Originally posted by: DrVos
Pardon me if I missed it, but are you planning on doing this, or paying someone to do it for you. Some of the things, like demo and laying pavers, cost very little in materials but cost a fair amount in labor.
Click to expand...

I'm going to rip up the flooring...I have a guy who can install and get me the flooring relatively cheap. Materials will be cheaper than labor, but with how the economy is, I'm sure I can get 4 bids or so and take the cheapest one. Right now is the best time to hire (as bad as that sounds...but it's true, labor is cheap right now with people needing work).


 
Questions would be, what type of material for the flooring? Engineered hardwood? laminate? Tile? Carpet?
Linear feet of fence?
Area for cobbletone and deck?
 
Originally posted by: Uppie1414
--ripping up 1 to 2 floors and leveling/reinstalling flooring (about 1,100 sq feet each, including all rooms, kitchen and bathroom)
Click to expand...

Solid hardwood starts around $4/sqft and goes up, up, up. Installation is ~$2-3/sq ft. Tile is generally cheaper than hardwood, but I believe the installation cost is higher. When we were deciding between tile and hardwood in our kitchen, we found that the price including all materials and installation was about the same for each.

Engineered hardwood is slightly cheaper, but is often 3/8" instead of 3/4". Laminate is even cheaper, but it's really obvious when a floor is laminate.
 
Is the 8 foot fence legal in your area?

They're not here...6 foot is the maximum privacy fence we're allowed.
 
My guesstimates (would really depend on size of project, location, materials):
Hardwood at $11 sq. ft. = 22K
Fencing at $20/ ln ft. = 5K
Cobble stone patio = 4K
Deck = 6K

I'm guessing around 40K not including the garage demo and new paved area.
 
Originally posted by: DrVos
Questions would be, what type of material for the flooring? Engineered hardwood? laminate? Tile? Carpet?
Linear feet of fence?
Area for cobbletone and deck?
Click to expand...

Probably a step up from laminate (unless it looks really good). I'm not going to get real expensive stuff, but I want it to look like good wood.

As for the kitchen/bathroom, I'd probably go some sort of tile/stone....I'm still doing research on this.

fencing would be about 30x30x30x (yards)
Deck would be about 20x20 feet or so.
Cobblestone...not really sure yet


Just feeling all of this out!
 
Originally posted by: Uppie1414
**Also, on the 3rd floor, it's a renovated studio about 20x38. This would be my room/office and it has a HUGE bay winder overlooking the lake. Is there any way to be able to put a small deck/area on the roof outside to be able to go out there? A couple other houses have that sort of thing and, if it works, it would be nice! Altough, the view is nice already, so I might not do anything at all
Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widow%27s_walk

I'm sure it's possible, but it'll probably be expensive.
 
Well, if you are willing to do some of the work yourself and adjust your materials, you could save a good amount of money.
If you went with say, would laminate in the main living areas (self install at $5 sq/foot), tile in the bathrooms (self install $5/ sq ft) and get carpet installed in the bedrooms ($3 sq ft) you could probably get your flooring redone for around $6,000
If you went with concrete pavers instead of cobblestone and installed it yourself you could probably do it for $500-600
etc. etc.
 
Originally posted by: Uppie1414
Thanks

Biggest thing is leveling off the floors. Has anyone had 1st-hand experience with this??

Dane
Click to expand...

I have first hand experience with it in that my floor needs it and the floor installer is coming today to prep my subfloor before the wood is delivered for my floors. Your floor needs to be flat to within ~1/8" over an 8 ft span. If you're close to that, there are leveling compounds that you can pour on the low spots in the floor. I've also heard of installers putting a couple of layers of asphalt roofing shingles on the low spots. If you have dips that are deeper, you need to raise the subfloor by shimming it, or possibly sistering another joist in if your joists are weakened from rot. If you have a basement, fixing the first floor shouldn't be too hard. The second floor... not so much. If your second floor needs a lot of work, you might want to just get carpet.
 
If you're buying to rent it out, I would go with the most durable/cheapest surface you can. For example, I'd go with tile over hardwood/laminate, and probably builder-grade carpet instead. If you put nice stuff in, it's going to be ruined by renters. If you're planning to sell it in a few years (it's an investment) or live in it later, you'll probably need to replace the new stuff anyway.
 
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